By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 7:46 pm, Friday, December 21, 2012

A Texas man accused of using anti-gay slurs while threatening a man in Seattle now faces a hate crime charge.

King County prosecutors claim Gregory B. Augustus threatened to assault another man at a Crown Hill bus stop. According to charging documents, Augustus, who’d been living in Seattle for a month at the time, continued to use the anti-gay slur after police removed him from the Metro bus.

“Oh, I forgot. I am in Washington state. We need to protect the (anti-gay slur),” the 49-year-old told police, according to charging documents.

At 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 20, the alleged victim and Augustus were waiting for a bus at the corner of Northwest 90th Street and 15th Avenue Northwest when Augustus accosted the other man, a Seattle detective told the court.

Augustus waved his hands in front of the other man’s face and then threatened to attack him while using anti-gay slurs, the detective told the court. Both men boarded a bus; the alleged victim reported the incident to the bus driver, who arranged for police to meet the coach in Ballard.

Officers boarded the bus and spoke with the alleged victim, who pointed them toward Augustus. As he was being removed, the detective continued, Augustus loudly complained that he was being pulled of the bus because of the man, who he again referred to by an anti-gay slur.

Augustus, whose criminal history includes multiple assault convictions in Texas, was booked into King County Jail but later released. He has now been charged with malicious harassment, a felony under Washington’s hate crime statute.